Public financing proponents back $1 million ad campaign

Coming soon to your television and computer: A $1 million advertising campaign pushing Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to create a public financing system for political campaigns.

The Public Campaign Action Fund, a national group dedicated to public campaign financing and funded in part by unions and labor-backed groups, is behind the ad buy, which will include television commercials on cable stations in the Hudson Valley, New York City and Long Island as well as the major networks in Buffalo and Albany.

The 30-second spot began airing Monday. It compares New York’s elections to the rehabilitation of the Statue of Liberty, arguing campaigns in the state are “broken,” “corroded” and “polluted.”

“New York state elections are in the same condition the Statue of Liberty once was, because big-money interests are drowning out the voices of ordinary voters,” a narrator says. “It took four years to restore Lady Liberty, so how long will it take to clean up our state elections?”

Cuomo’s plan would mimic New York City’s election system, in which small campaign donations are matched with public funds at a 6-to-1 rate if a candidate opts in. The plan has faced significant opposition from Republicans in the Legislature, with Senate Co-Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, among the leading critics.

Cuomo included the proposal as part of his $137.2 billion budget plan. The state’s 2014-15 budget is due by April 1.